Winchester Fire-EMS is looking into the possibility of contracting with another emergency medical services provider to help its ambulance service better serve the community.

During a meeting Wednesday night at Winchester City Hall, the Emergency Medical Services Committee met with two representatives of AMR, a part of Global Medical Response, Breathitt-Wolfe EMS Inc. and Montgomery County Fire Chief Michael A. Mosbey about contract non-emergency services.

Another company could provide additional manpower, help with transfers and help with 911 dispatching.

Winchester City Commissioner Ramsey Flynn, a member of the six-person committee, said Thursday the committee intends to discuss what kind of proposal it wants at its Feb. 3 meeting.

“Winchester is loaded down with run volume,” Flynn said.

He said the city is in the process of hiring six more medical service professionals — paramedics and EMTs — to provide another ambulance crew.

Since 1990 when the city fire department and county ambulance service merged, the department has only three front line ambulances, but the number of runs has doubled.

Clark Regional Medical Center has become a truly regional hospital that serves several Eastern Kentucky counties, Winchester has a nursing home, and the population is aging, all of which have contributed to the increase, he said.

At the same time Medicare and Medicaid don’t come close to covering the costs of an ambulance run.

“What we get from Medicare is not enough to pay for a run to Lexington,” Flynn said.

Medicaid, according to Winchester Fire-EMS Chief Cathy Rigney, will only pay about $55 per run.

“This is a problem all over the nation,” Flynn said of the shortage of staffing and increasing run volumes.

Clark County Magistrate Chris Davis, another member of the committee, said the EMS service has no problem covering runs for emergency services but doesn’t have the resources to handle so many transfers.

During the meeting Wednesday, he made a motion to put out a proposal for bids for a company to cover all non-medical transfers, but withdrew the motion at the request of Clark County Judge-Executive Chris Pace because Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner had asked that the committee not vote on anything because he could not be present.

“I certainly plan on making that motion in a couple of weeks if somebody else doesn’t first,” Davis said.

Davis said he doesn’t think the private service would be more expensive than what Winchester Fire-EMS could provide the service for, in part because hazardous duty pensions are so costly for public employees.

“That’s something we have to be mindful of, is how much we’re adding to our pension liabilities,” he said.

The next meeting of the committee will be at 6 p.m. Feb. 3, probably at the Clark County Courthouse.

“Our goal is to make sure we can provide the best service we can to the community,” Flynn said.